“I don’t understand.”
“Come with me.”
“No.”
His eyes narrow. “Yes.”
“Why are you doing this?”He was always so kind to me.
The front door swings open, and he lunges at me before Jensen’s footsteps reach us.
“Liv! Thea’s been trying to get a hold of us. She found him! It’s–” Our phones fall from his hands like bricks, but I can’t see them hit the linoleum because a sharp blade is tucked under my chin, keeping my neck taut.
“Noah…” His name falls from Hayes’s lips as a warning.
I feel my old classmate’s muscles tense against me. I don’t know if they ever interacted in school, but Noah saw Hayes beat Mr. Arkett that night. He held me back while I screamed…
“She’s coming with me,” he forces through gritted teeth right beside my ear.
“No, she’s not,” Hayes says, holding his hands out in front of him.
“I’ve been waiting for her for years. If you hadn’t shown upagain, she would have finally been mine!” He spits out, and I flinch at his outburst.
“What are you talking about? I haven’t seen you since high school,” I cry, trying to pull a fraction of an inch away, and reaping the consequences immediately as the sharp stinging rips across my throat.
“Don’t move, Liv!” Hayes thunders, his wild eyes locked on the blade under my chin.
Noah’s other hand drags the length of my spine over the thin fabric of my robe, and it takes all of my will not to retreat from it. “I wanted you to seeme.But it was alwayshim,”he spits at Hayes. “And, then Mr. Arkett swept you off your feet, and I was nothing, again!”
“I didn’t even know you liked me,” I utter, gasping as the first drip of blood rolls down the column of my neck.
“Liked you? I was in love with you!” He yells, gripping my hair suddenly, making me cry out in pain.
“All those study sessions. Computer lab dates. The first night you got in Mr. Arkett’s car instead of getting in mine was a slap in the face, but I forgave you. But watching him touch your body after prom when it should have been me, killed me!”
I feel Hayes take a step forward like I can always sense him, but Noah is focused on my face.
“I even applied to the same college so we could be together.”
My eyes blink rapidly, still trying to recall him from undergrad.
“You were upset. You needed me! But your stupid little friend wouldn’t let me near you,” he sneers. “She didn’t know what we had together.”
I only remember the nights I cried into my pillow, wishing for Hayes… I never thought twice about Noah once I graduated high school.
“Why didn’t you say anything yearsago?”
He lets his fingers dance across my cheek. “I liked watching you. So, I waited for you.”
“Why?”
“Because you weren’t ready for me.”
“What?” I can’t make sense of any of this, but if I keep him talking, it’ll distract him from Hayes.
“I followed you to law school,” he murmurs in my ear.
I can’t believe it, and he sees the confusion on my face.
